National Days Marketing Ideas

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Yesterday on Twitter, I saw that the hash tag #NationalHugYourCatDay was trending and today I see the hash tag #NationalRunningDay is trending. So what are some national days marketing ideas that your business can take advantage of?

Popularity of National Days

You should know that marketers love holidays. Why wouldn’t we when it makes our jobs so much easier, as the majority of product sales occur at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and so forth.

Now in recent years, other holidays such as Independence Day, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day have, obviously, all become a great marketing opportunities. Also, holidays such as Groundhog Day, President’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are still growing in popularity.

Now, if I was selling cat products, I have to say that I would have been all over that trending hash tag on Twitter yesterday. I would have been tweeting out funny cat memes that had my shop logo in the corner. I also would be commenting on really popular tweets to get my shop name seen. Finally, I would have offered a special discount in my shop just for the holiday and let some popular cat blogs know in hopes they would mention it to their readers.

Therefore, here are some international days of observance that your business could benefit from, in terms of publicity:

Earth Day: April 22nd – for anyone selling green or eco-friendly products, this is a huge publicity opportunity as newspapers and blogs are looking for interesting editorial.
International Literacy Day: September 8th – a great opportunity for independent book authors and publishers.
Universal Children’s Day: November 20th – a good opportunity for businesses selling baby and kids products.

Here are just a few of the more whimsical, national days of observance that your business might be able to use. Note, if you sell food products, or are a restaurant, pretty much every type of food has their own national day:

February 7: National Send a Card to a Friend Day
March 21: National Fragrance Day
April 10: National Golfer’s Day
July 15: National Ice Cream Day
August 26: National Dog Day
September 9: National Grandparent’s Day

FINAL WORD: Small businesses need to take advantage of every free publicity opportunity available in order to get in front their target market. Maybe some of these days of observance can be an opportunity for yours.